Month: May 2013

Herb Romerstein, a true hero of the Cold War’s intellectual battlegrounds, passed away last week. Among other things Romerstein was the primary author of the indispensable book The Venona Secrets, which describes in painstaking detail the Soviet Union’s penetration of the US government during the 1930’s and 40’s.

Paul Kengor of Grove City College wrote a fitting tribute to Mr. Romerstein for the American Spectator, which is reprinted below with Dr. Kengor’s permission.

This is the twenty-fourth in my series of posts about the five businessmen the History Channel profiled in a terribly inaccurate and un-historical TV miniseries titled The Men Who Built America. I’m writing these posts in response to several comments and e-mails from TV viewers who have expressed interest in a more accurate version of the story. (Click here to see all Al’s columns on the program and its subjects.)

Post #24: The Homestead Steel Mill Strike

In late June of 1892 a labor strike at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Works turned deadly when a gunfight erupted between striking workers and the security guards the company had brought in to protect the plant. The History Channel’s portrayal of this event was probably the low point of the entire eight hour The Men Who Built America miniseries. It was pure fiction.

This is the twenty-third in my series of posts about the five businessmen the History Channel profiled in a terribly inaccurate and un-historical TV miniseries titled The Men Who Built America. I’m writing these posts in response to several comments and e-mails from TV viewers who have expressed interest in a more accurate version of the story. (Click here to see all Al’s columns on the program and its subjects.)

Post #23: JP Morgan and the Electric Light

Late in 1878 JP Morgan wrote a letter to his brother-in-law about an investment opportunity that he considered “most important.” “Secrecy at the moment is so essential that that I do not dare put it on paper,” said Morgan. “Subject is Edison’s electric light.”